Anakpawis vows to pursue justice in Luisita, junking of AJ in its bid for Congress seats

Anakpawis, the largest partylist of marginalized sectors in the country, vowed to pursue land and justice for Hacienda Luisita farmers and workers as it officially declared today its bid for Congress in next year’s election.

In a historic convention of urban poor, peasant and labor leaders, the partylist labeled the issue of land distribution and massacre of striking workers in Luisita as a “flagship social justice problem” in the country, which presidentiables must address even at this point.

“As we affirm our bid to give the toiling masses a voice among the crowd of traditional politicians, we also affirm our struggle for genuine land reform and justice for farmers and farmworkers – in particular, in our struggle in the promised land of Luisita,” said Rep. Rafael “Paeng” Mariano, Anakpawis representative to the 13th and 14th Congress.

“We reiterate that the problems in Luisita constitute a social justice issue that the entire nation should keep a vigilant eye on, contrary to the Cojuangcos’s claim that these issues are mere black propaganda. It is about the landlessness of those who till, injustice committed to those who toil, and massacre of those who fight for basic rights,” Mariano added.

Mariano, speaking at the partylist’s national convention in Quezon City, said Anakpawis will push for the distribution of Luisita by caling for upholding of the government’s revocation of the Stock Distribution Option (SDO) in Luisita, which allowed the Cojuangcos to circumvent land distribution.

Meanwhile, Kilusang Mayo Uno executive vice president Joselito Ustarez said Anakpawis and other progressive groups will put pressure on courts to prosecute and speed up the prosecution of military units, especially their officials, who are behind the brutal massacre of seven striking workers in Luisita in 2004.

He said the partylist will also continue to highlight the intensifying militarization in the 6,453-hectare land, especially in the run-up to the fifth anniversary of the massacre this coming Monday.

“When the strike at Luisita was crushed with brute force using DOLE’s Assumption of Jurisdiction as legal blanket, all other factories and agro-industrial lands in Central Luzon became highly militarized with the DOLE secretary’s power as license,” said Ustarez.

“This makes Luisita highly relevant to our struggle for the junking of the Assumption of Jurisdiction, which has served as a ‘shoot-to-kill order’ against workers throughout the country for years,” added Ustarez. #